Thursday, April 30, 2009

You're invited to shop at my new Etsy store. Go to www.etsy.com and search for Crochetkween1. Thant's me and you will find the whole line of patterns I designed for Himalaya Yarns, most use "Tibet" which is recycled silk made from saris. Reasonably priced at $4.00 per pattern, I hope you enjoy!

Many, many thanks to my wonderful Jubilee Crystal Celebration Committee, Dee Stanziano, BJ Licko Keel, and Sharon Devrol. Also much appreciation goes to Vashti Braha, our liaison from the board of CGOA. We pulled off a wonderful online contest to get a logo designed for our 15th anniversary festivities and for a commemorative pin that will be available at the conference in Buffalo in August. Big congratulations to the winner of the online voting by members of CGGO: Mary Servillo!! Mary designed a logo that is fabulous and conveys our excitement about the upcoming celebration; and she won a year's membership in CGOA, an autographed crocheted book plus, of course, a pin!

May 19, 2009 Thanks to Dee Stanziano (crochetwithdee.com) for getting the 15th anniversary celebration blogs started all over the world. It is indeed the 15th year of CGOA and that is cause for celebration.

June 4, 2009-WE'RE CELEBRATIONG WITH A LOGO DESIGN CONTEST!I am delighted to be working on the Jubilee Crystal Committee to plan the 15th anniversary celebration for CGOA. Yesterday we posted everywhere about our logo design contest. We are hoping for many entries and a fabulous final winning design to use for promotion and fun mementos for our members during this 15th anniversary year! See below and join in the fun!CGOA is Celebrating Fifteen Years!With an OnlineJubilee Crystal Anniversary Logo Design ContestThe Northern IL Chapter of CGOA and the “Crystal Jubilee” Celebration Committee invites you to create a logo in honor of the Crochet Guild of America’s Fifteenth Anniversary! It is an important milestone and there is no better way to celebrate than to tap into the great talent & passion of our wonderful members! We've accomplished so much since the simple “Chain Link” newsletter in 1993 and first “Chain Link” Conference in 1994!

The Premiere chapter of the CGOA, the Northern IL Chapter (NIC) held its first meeting in June 1994 -- even before the first Conference that year in August. The NIC, also celebrating its 15th Anniversary, is proud to sponsor this design contest for the CGOA. The winning logo design will be used for a commemorative pin that can be purchased by each member who attends the annual conference in Buffalo this summer!

Rules:1) Submissions must be created by members of the CGOA*. Due to time constraints, this contest is offered to those with online access.2) Entries will be accepted from June 2nd to June 14th, 2009 and are intended to create a memento for a lapel pin to commemorate 15 years of crochet camaraderie. The lapel shape will be oval; please keep this in mind while designing your entry.3) Colors: No more than 4 colors are to be used.4) Entries may be computer generated or hand drawn (& scanned). All must be in .jpg format for Yahoo to recognize, and then uploaded to the CGOA-Membership yahoo group by midnight (Eastern Time) June 14th, 2009 to be officially entered into this contest. 5) Entries must be placed in the “JUBILEE CRYSTAL CONTEST” folder located in the Photo section of the CGOA-Membership yahoo group.6) From June 16-18 there will be a CGOA member online vote via a poll in the CGOA-Membership yahoo group. The three entries with the most votes will then move onto the final round of being presented to the CGOA Board where a Winner will be announced.7) The Winner will receive a year’s membership in CGOA, compliments of Happily Hooked on Crochet Club, Connecticut Chapter of CGOA, an autographed book compliments of a NIC member, plus a free lapel pin. There will be no monetary prizes/exchanges/compensation. 8) All competition entrants will agree, if chosen as The Winner, to grant the CGOA the right to use their winning design to be used on commemorative pins, the anniversary cake at the 2009 conference and much more!

As part of the conference festivities in Buffalo, attendees will have an opportunity to have lunch with Past Presidents and members of the NIC to share memories and ideas of how we can continue to advance the cause of crochet into the next decade. A limited supply of pins will be available for members unable to attend the conference.

* Not a member of the CGOA? It is easy to join! Visit www.Crochet.org to process your membership application online – it’s a snap!

She must have been reading my mind (or my blg) because last week, Rita Weiss, President of CGOA asked me to take charge of getting an Anniversary cake ordered for the annual conference in Buffalo in August. Hey, no problem; but we deserve more than cake (not that I don't just love a great cake). We've come so far in CGOA and have miles to go. Fifteen years is an important milestone and the members deserve to be pampered for their contributions to bringing our organization into the forefront of what it means to be the only organization for crocheters. Since then, a lot of brainstorming has taken place and we have a "Crystal Jubilee Celebration Committee" in place. Thanks to BJ Licko-Keel for the title! Thanks to dee Stanziano for being on the committee with me. We'd love to have afew more people on the committee, if you're interested. There's not a lot of time to pull this together but we are off to a rousing start. We're pulling together the details and working out the kinks, so stay posted and we will let you know what surprises we have up our collective sleeves.

The Beginnings......Who would have ever thought back in August 1994 that a gathering of 90 entusiastic crocheters from all over the US and a few countries would turn out to be The Crochet Guild of America that very weekend? Well, I for one knew that it was something that I very much needed and wanted. I was a lonely crocheter and had no one else to sit down with to chat and chain. I was caring but there was no sharing. That weekend, I found out that there were 89 others who felt the same way!

Our teachers that weekend taught pro bono because they were so thrilled to have a large group together just itching to learn more. Everyone was willing to help throughout the weekend and many volunteered to do tasks that were necessary to get the guild off the ground.

Fast forward: We now have an international guild for crocheters (CGOA whose membership ebbs and flows. We have an annual get-together, "Chain Link" Crochet Conference,at the Knit and Crochet Show as well as yearly regional meetings. These bring classes, fashion shows, prizes and crochet comaraderie. We have a magazine, a website, a newsletter, a management company, contests and prizes, a chat group on line plus fifty-something chapters around the US. Are you a member?

In 2003, we marked an important milestone for the organization, The Tenth Anniversary of CGOA. A "Celebration Committee" was formed and I had the honor of being the Chairperson. I had marvelous support from the yarn industry and some talented people on the committe. We worked for a year to highlight crochet and the wonderful people that make up our organization. Thanks to DRG, the committee created an official celebration logo and had pins and t-shirts made.

Most exciting was the traveling juired crochet art exhibition, "Rhythm of Crochet" which premiered at the Chain Link Crochet Conference, "Sweet Home Chicago" where it all started in 1994. The exhibit traveled all over the US for one year and again, it was made possible by great support from industry leaders. There were ads and articles throughout the year about the exhibit. Melodee MacDuffe, crochet designer and author, was chosen as a "travbeling teacher" who we promoted to chapters for a special event in their own hometowns. Melodee traveled to several locations and taught her inspiring workshops.

What's missing? What more do you want? In this fifteenth year, can we say we are the go-to organization when someone thinks crochet? No, not quite. I am celebrating, though, about how far we have come and I am celebrating all the talented volunteers/crocheters who contributed their ideas and creativity along the way to get us this far. CGOA is the ONLY organziation for crocheters and it is a fan-tabulous experience for those who can attend chapter meetings or go to a conference. CGOA still has a way to go. It can be so much more for so many more with an enhanced on-line presence.

Let's chat! I want to hear your thoughts. "Friends of the new and modernized CGOA-online", we can make it happen!

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About Me

As Founder of the Crochet Guild of America, I share my passion for crochet wherever and whenever: teaching, writing, crocheting in public! I'm proud to introduce my third book, The Fine Art of Crochet (published in June 2013 by Author House).